Killswitch: Chapter One

Chapter List:
Prologue

Meeting the Man

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that are gonna die, and those that are me.
Cruikias Mondet, Minmatar Racing Champion.

After a much quieter second leg, Hallan finally arrived in 6NJ8-V. Venal. The home of the Guristas pirates. He checked the system beacons and found two stations, he recognized the one the instructions had mentioned and engaged warp.

He came out of the warp bubble quickly, and angled his ship for docking.

Hallan Turrek then effortlessly glided his Rifter into the Guristas Logistics Support station, just like he'd done hundreds of thousands of times in the past. This time though the hangars were devoid of crew. He wasn't sure what that meant. He slowly lowered his Rifter onto a landing pad and felt his ship clang as it held his ship down.

"I'm grounded?" He thought from inside his pod, "Oh this ain't normal,"

"We ain't normal, get out of the pod," A voice boomed inside his head.

_______________________

Hallan Turrek was being led by several armed men through the station corridors. It looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in years, the normally shiny interior of the Caldari station was stained with a puke green hue. One of the men grabbed him by the arm and shoved him against a door. The door opened and he was kicked inside. He flew into the room and came down on his knees.

Hallan looked up to see a man sitting behind a desk, who reached forward to turn on a lamp on his desk. Hallan stood up and looked in the man's eyes.

"Sit down," The man said it plainly, without the hint of command in his voice.

"I'm good," Hallan said, dusting off his coat.

"You know, you remind me of a guy who used to work for me, went by the name Zippo," The man behind the desk leaned back and put his boots up in front of him.

"That's a funny name," Hallan said, looking up.

"They're all funny names. Thing is, he had a real problem with authority. Give the guy an order, he'd find some way to shove it up your ass. It's how I ended up with him. One day, 'bout eight years ago I tell this guy before a job, 'Make sure you bring a backup detonator.'

"I mean, Zippo was a professional demo guy. He could make a light show like you wouldn't believe. This was important though, so I felt like saying it. He didn't like it, but he shut up about it. We get to the bank, we break into the vault--"

"Where at?"

"What are you a fucking cop? It's a vault. We break into the vault, we rig up the charges, and it doesn't go off. So I tell him to break out the extra detonator. And he tells me, he didn't bring 'em,"

"So what'd you do?"

"I shot that prick and used mine,"

"What?" Hallan raised an eyebrow.

The man behind the desk threw his feet to the floor and leaned forward into the light, "I told you to fucking sit down,"

Hallan looked around for a moment, laughed softly, and sat down in the chair across from the man.

"Now, who are you?" The man asked, picking up a pen on his desk.

"I'm Hallan Turrek,"

"That's what you're going with, 'I'm Hallan Turrek?'" The man let a half smile cross his face and it quickly faded away.

"That's my name,"

"I know your name jackass. You think I'd let you in this room... you think I'd let you on this station if I didn't know your ident code, what you wear to bed, what you had for breakfast this morning, and who your mom and dad were fucking last night?"

"My Dad's dead,"

"And your Mom's a prude. Let's not get distracted," the man twirled the pen quickly between his fingers, but focused his eyes on Hallan, "Do you at least know who I am?"

"You're Jira..."

"No, that's wrong. We don't play by those rules here. I'm Fatal,"

"Ok,"

"Who are you?"

Hallan stopped for a moment and looked up, "I-I'm Jack,"

"Now we're getting somewhere,"

"I'm here to work for you,"

"I know that,"

"I can be useful," Hallan leaned onto the table as he spoke.

"If you weren't useful you'd have never made it here,"

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to prove to me that I can trust you,"

"How do I do that?"

"You tell me,"

"I've been killing miners, traders, and anti-pirates for months now. I've been stealing from and killing the Cartel on a regular basis," Hallan stopped speaking for a moment as Fatal's pen fell to the table.

"Yeah, the Cartel. They fucking hate you. And I hate them. But I don't really see where killing and stealing from thieves is supposed to get you currency in this exchange," Hallan shifted uncomfortably in his seat as Fatal spoke, "You know the difference between you and me and the cartel?"

"The rules?"

"Not where I was going with that, but I like how you think. You and me? Style. Them? Profit,"

"I try both when I can," Hallan said with a chuckle.

"Me too man, me too," Fatal stared at Hallan intently for a moment and sighed, "Listen, I can't really be sure Concord wouldn't send somebody like you down here to fuck with me, or to spy on me. So here's what we're going to do. Concord's got a nice blockade set up at a stargate we'd been using for smuggling into Empire.

"It's pretty obvious we can't use the gate again, but since you just fell in my lap, I've got an idea. Go find Orvyllerier Allerande on the promenade. He'll get you the coords for the stargate. Go there. Kill them. All of them. Talk to Orvy when you're done.

"If this works out, you report to Orvy from now on. You don't want to see me again. It means something bad is about to happen. I'm letting you know because if that time comes, there's nothing you can do about it,"

Hallan nodded and stood up. He extended his hand and the man shook it. Hallan turned around and walked out the door. Hallan realized the guards were gone and as the door closed behind him, he shivered.